I used to be a proponent of play your young prospects as much as possible, but after observing our Manitoba affiliate my opinion has changed.

Losing is habbit forming. Players should not be handed ice time in the NHL (unless you're tanking), so why should the prospects expect any different?

If you want more ice, play better, work harder. Send the right message right from the start of their career.

Still, I'd rather Gillis have 100% control over which veterans get brought in to support the kids. It wasn't a big issue with the Wolves, but veteran slots in the AHL are limited and you don't want to waste one on, say, a winger who's popular with the local fans when what you really need is a centre.

Still, I'd rather Gillis have 100% control over which veterans get brought in to support the kids. It wasn't a big issue with the Wolves, but veteran slots in the AHL are limited and you don't want to waste one on, say, a winger who's popular with the local fans when what you really need is a centre.

I agree with this. For all the crowing about how the Wolves were a separate entity from the Canucks and the kids weren't getting enough playing time because of AHL vets like Haydar, etc, I reckon the Canucks organization had a tougher time having their concerns heard when the Moose were our affiliate.

If they relocate to Abbotsford I'd name them the Fraser Valley Canucks. Alternate their uniform every few years with our past logos, such as the skate, V, orca, stick and rink, and millionaries, all while sticking with the blue, green and white colour scheme.

How much of the staff that was involved with Peoria would be transferred with this? St. Louis has done a good job developing talent in Peoria, so I would assume that there's some people worth keeping around from the Canucks perspective.

Say you have a Ballard or a Booth or a Luongo, and you want to bury their contracts in the minors, they could literally keep their Yaletown apartments and just take a car service everyday to Abbotsford and earn the same cash.

Your Abbotsford players could keep their apartments in Langley and drive either 20 mins to Abbotsford's rink or less than an hour to Rogers Arena.

Say you have a Ballard or a Booth or a Luongo, and you want to bury their contracts in the minors, they could literally keep their Yaletown apartments and just take a car service everyday to Abbotsford and earn the same cash.

Your Abbotsford players could keep their apartments in Langley and drive either 20 mins to Abbotsford's rink or less than an hour to Rogers Arena.

Not with the new CBA you can't. Anything over and above 900k counts towards the NHL cap.

I used to be a proponent of play your young prospects as much as possible, but after observing our Manitoba affiliate my opinion has changed.

Losing is habbit forming. Players should not be handed ice time in the NHL (unless you're tanking), so why should the prospects expect any different?

If you want more ice, play better, work harder. Send the right message right from the start of their career.

+1. Far too many here expect everything to be given to our prospect or they think the Wolves have some sort of vendetta against our prospects, despite last year and multiple examples proving them to be false. It just falls on deaf ears.

I'm happy for the Canucks for finally owning their own affiliate, but by no means are the Wolves a vindictive or bad affiliate, as people portray them to be.

It will be a good start this fall, new affiliate, and a lot incoming prospects. It will be exciting.

+1. Far too many here expect everything to be given to our prospect or they think the Wolves have some sort of vendetta against our prospects, despite last year and multiple examples proving them to be false. It just falls on deaf ears.

I'm happy for the Canucks for finally owning their own affiliate, but by no means are the Wolves a vindictive or bad affiliate, as people portray them to be.

It will be a good start this fall, new affiliate, and a lot incoming prospects. It will be exciting.

While that's true, there's definitely some bias towards guys like Haydar and Sterling (who are Wolves' favourites) and I'm not convinced that it comes from Arniel.

They would need at least four, preferably five teams to relocate west. Most of the NHL teams out west have their teams in the AHL's Eastern Conference, and moving them will disrupt the economics of the AHL, as that conference is bus-centric. When the Chicago Wolves joined the AHL, we actually played a few teams in the Eastern Conference the first few seasons. That practice has since been eliminated citing the economics of travel, because the teams in the Eastern Conference can't afford it.

If anything, the other 29 AHL teams are probably wondering how soon they can get rid of the mistake of giving Abbotsford a team.

While that's true, there's definitely some bias towards guys like Haydar and Sterling (who are Wolves' favourites) and I'm not convinced that it comes from Arniel.

Haydar was played in the same opportunities (1st/2nd line RW and 1st PP) last season with MacT, but since he rolled his lines fairly evenly it wasn't a concern and we didn't hear many complaints last year. Were there many complaints regarding Reinprecht? He took a lot of icetime from Schroeder last season as he was able to PK, on 1st PP and on the 1st line. Don't remember one person throwing a fit about him. I think some people wanted him back.

Jason Krog, Marco Rosa, Jaffray, Desbiens played a ton of minutes and got a ton of opportunity on the Moose, yet we didn't hear they were vindictive or biased.

When the Wolves bring in their player, they are trying to cut down our prospects icetime/development and win over everything else. When he Moose brought in their own player and some people would be excited because of Heisinger's ability to find talent (Burrows) and embraced the players (Pope). It's nonsensical.